Where does the time go?

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted! Actually, that's not true. I totally believe it, I am on the computer everyday but since I don't need to escape from work, I don't think about updating my blog. Just look at every summer since I've started this turkey! Very, VERY few entries. Oh well...

Here is an update.

I have been sleeping late and napping a lot! This is good because baby-boy-to-be (bb2b) does not let me sleep much at night. What with the heartburn, crazy dreams, itchy skin, and sore belly, who can sleep? Other than that, I am feeling fine. bb2b is still full breech, his head is up under my ribs and his adorable little tush is down. We hope he will turn in the next 4-6 weeks but my Dr is taking a "better safe than sorry" route. We have a c-section scheduled for a couple days before my due date if he stays turned around. I am nervous, scared, apprehensive about the C but am trying to look on the bright side- no middle of the night rush to the hospital in pain! 8 weeks to go...

We took the kiddo's to Key Lime Cove. What a fabulous 24 hours! We stayed in a lovely room, swam as much as mommy and daddy could handle, ate decent food, it was great! Thanks mom and dad for the gift certificate, we love you! This is part of my master summer plan where we will do one special event each week, a field trip or mini-trip of sorts. We did it one week and not the next. Week 3 is TBD.

Brianna had a lovely 6th birthday. She started the night before with a sleepover with cousin Hannah and a visit to Chuck-E-Cheese. She had a blast on her sleep over and reportedly only got a little homesick at bedtime. (Mommy missed her a lot and even though I got a lot of cleaning and prep work done with her gone, I don't think I ever want to miss a minute of her birthday again!) Later on her birthday we arranged a gymnastics party for her and 14 of her little friends at the local gym. She LOVED that! Afterwards we had our family and closest friends back to the house for dinner from Moe's. Moe's is Brianna's favorite restaurant and is on the family's top 10 list. I highly recommend their catering!

Both kids are taking gymnastics on Mondays and swimming lessons on Tuesdays. They go to "camp" twice a week so mommy and daddy can get stuff done. We are ready to prime and paint "the barn room" so Brianna can move in there. Then we will prime and paint Brianna's pink room into something more appropriate for bb2b.

Be prepared for cop-out photo entries of all this for a while!

School's...out... for... summer!

AH! Finally I have made it to the end of the year. To the end of the craziness. To June 11!

Summer finally beckons full of painting the house, gymnastics and swimming lessons, naps, family day's, and maybe more naps. :-) The end of the summer will be marked by our last addition to the family. I couldn't be more excited for the next 10 weeks.

Now if only the weather would cooperate...

Holy Cow! Look at the time!

I just spent the better part of 2 hours reading my own blog archives!

I started looking at spring and summer of 2005 to see if I'd written down anything about my pregnancy with Grant. That would have been about the stage I'm at now and I wanted to compare.

I kept reading...
Every Post...
though spring of 2008.

At that point, I actually remembered the things that happened and they weren't as funny anymore. I should have been working... oh well.
I LOVED my trip down memory lane!

I'm sliding in... covered in chocolate... someday.

Have you heard the one about how you should go to your grave by sliding in sideways, covered in chocolate and wine instead of being perfectly preserved? That is what I want.

Mindy over at Mama Drama says it another way:

"No special care for any specific part of myself. My body is a temple and like most ancient ruins, it could use a little restoration, but it has historical value if nothing else.

As for my house....that's a wreck too."

Amen Min... Amen!

It sings to me!

It is common to find that a particular song brings you back to a time or place in your life. I find that this is never more true for me than with each of my pregnancies. Pregnancy is such a time of confusion, amazement, concern, joy...of every high and low... that music and stories reach out and grab those hormones by the horns and just don't let go.

With Brianna, it was "In My Daughters Eyes" by Martina McBride.

With Grant it was "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)" by The Dixie Chicks.

With Baby #3, I can't get enough of "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker.

I guess I'm a mellow mama! You should see the whole i-pod playlist, I've titled it, For my kids.

Countdowns

30 days until my "baby" turns 6!!!!
14 more days to arrive at school
10 more actually "teaching"
8 days until we've been married 10 years
3 days until my 3rd Trimester

um... HOLY COW!!! and I wasn't really thinking cow...

The Last First Time

Today, someone rubbed my belly.

It is the first time for this pregnancy. I didn't find it overly upsetting like I used to because, even though I am not friends with the woman, it is the last, first belly pat I will ever get.

I'm not sure I'm making any sense.
The whole thing makes me a little sad. And Happy.

About Time!!!

Today we have been home from our wonderful Florida vacation for 6 weeks. And rather than tell you all about my life, or Brianna, or Grant, or the as-yet-nameless baby's life, I will post pictures!

Kids in line at Disney World:
Kids after Disney World:

Kids at Gatorland:

Kids at the beach:

Where am I? I am on a cruise enjoying being seasick and very, very, full (alternately!).

Lovies!

I won't bore you with all the excuses why I haven't posted in forever.
Here are some OLD pictures that show why I am SO excited to bring a new baby into my loving family.

And we're off!

We are 90-95% packed! In the morning after we get ready for school we will add all the daily necessities... make-up, shampoo, blankies... and we will be all set.

Adam and I get off work at around 1:30 on Friday.
We will rush home, pack car. Triple check house.
Pick up kids at school between 2 and 2:30.
Drive 90 minutes to Rockford.
Wait in Dinky airport with nothing for kids to do but has free parking for mom and dad.

At 5:35 CST we will be in the air, Orlando bound!

What made me decide to do this all in one day?
1. I am insane and not at all realistic sometimes.
2. It saved us over $60 per person to fly on Friday vs. Saturday.
3. Who wants to wait for vacation?

See you later alligator!

(singing off key)

Memories.... light the corners of my mind.... misty, watercolor memories... of the way, we were....

Today at lunch, we somehow started talking about proposals. One of my co-workers had this amazing proposal, something any girl would love! Her husband was waiting for her in her classroom when she arrived one Friday morning (she's a teacher). He said, you have a substitute on the way, write up your plans and lets go! They spent a romantic day, and night, at the beach and a nice hotel where they got engaged. The next night, they were supposed to have dinner with friends but he had another surprise-- an engagement party for all their family and friends.

What a great proposal!!!!!

And then in my wanderings today, I clicked upon this. I hope that woman loved her proposal too!

So I started thinking about my own proposal- the only one I ever plan on getting- and how I ruined it for myself!....

Adam and I designed my ring. I really loved this process and sure it took some of the surprise out but, I picked my own ring and love it as much today as I did over 10 years ago! WELL... on the day the ring was set to be finished, Adam was supposed to pick me up and we were going to go get the ring together. But when he arrived at my house, he told me he'd forgotten his checkbook at home, 45 MINUTES AWAY! I thought we would have to drive all the way to his house and then back again before getting my ring! SO- I started looking around his car for the checkbook. Adam is a notorious joker and I was sure he had the checkbook but wanted to joke around for some reason. I checked under the seat, I checked the glove compartment, I was turning around to check the backseat when he stopped me. He reached in the center console (which I had forgotten he had and I never would have checked there) and he pulled out a little white jewelery box. Right there, at the stop light at Book Road and Route 75, we got engaged. In his car. And we went to Subway for lunch afterward (also the site of our first date so slightly more romantic than it sounds).

Who knows what his proposal would have been, could have been, should have been.
But I still have a good story to tell!

stalling

I totally have work I should be doing....

• grading
• planning
• cleaning

I don't want to!

I've been sitting here reading back through old posts on this blog and thinking about all the things I'd forgotten. I mean, I remember the basics but when I go back and read the details... Shew! Especially Grant's first year! And I think about this little baby I'm growing and what it's first year might be like and WHY did I actively fight to have another one?

Then I think about my kids now... and how Grant tells me he loves me at least 10 times per day. And how Brianna is learning to read and wants to know everything about everything. They are so amazing, and wonderful, and loving, and perfect. And how can I not want more of that?

I like to take silly quizes!

This is what I do when I'm supposed to be working! Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

You Are Apple Juice

You're very likable and quite popular. It's hard not to find something to love about you. You are playful and fun. You try to bring levity to situations. While you are entertaining, you're not very hyper or mischievous. You are laid back, low key, and even a bit sensitive.

What Kind of Juice Are You?

Things I am happy about...

• I wasn't queasy or nauseous this morning.
• Grant and I are both feeling better and back at work/school.
• 4 more wake-ups till Florida!
• Brianna seems to have missed the flu boat even though we keep forgetting to give her the medicine the Dr gave us to prevent the flu.
• Adam seems to have missed the flu boat too.
• I'm not superstitious.
• One week from today I will be getting on a cruise ship with my hubby.
• I bought ice cream and chocolate syrup... yum...
• The project I LOATHE at work will be done tomorrow at 8:00pm!!!!

IT'S A GOOD WEEK!!!!!

Time goes by so fast...

Last week I had the flu. I missed 3 1/2 days of work, slept 16-18 hours a day, and had no appetite.
This week, Grant has the flu. He's missed 3 days of school, lays around all day, and has no appetite.

It's one thing to be the sick one. I can force myself to eat for the baby's sake. I can make myself sleep. No one misses me at work and quite frankly, I enjoyed the break.

I HATE that my little guy is sick. I HATE that my independent 3 year old has been reduced to wanting to be held and carried everywhere he goes and asking for help with simple tasks. I HATE that he doesn't understand why he can't go play with his friends and color and draw and have fun all day. If I could take his sick away and put it on myself again I would do it in a heartbeat.

I LOVE my parents. They are both retired and my mom stayed home with Grant on Monday. Both my parents are there today so he can stay home and I don't have to miss any more work. They are the most amazing people. Someday I hope I can do that for my grandchildren!

Good Grief!

1. We had a girls name all settled and now Adam isn't sure anymore. He wants a name that's foolproof to pronounce, but doesn't like/want any "classic" names. BABE- You can't have your cake and eat it too!

2. I have PILES of work that need to get graded and another pile is coming tomorrow. Can I make myself work... No. I sit during all my work time and look for cute cruise wear on e-bay or read silly blogs. I will be super frustrated soon and melt down but still, no working today.

3. Had a lovely weekend staying home, out of the rain, and reading a good book. Now I'm just an hour or so from the end and all I want to do is read it. I stayed up way to late last night reading and made myself sick this morning.

UGH!

HLOL!

Jenny: We use those child safety plugs all over the house to keep Hailey from jamming a fork in an electical socket but I don't really see the use in butt plugs. You think Hailey's going to jam a fork in her teacher's butthole? God, they freaked out when she just bit another kid in her class. Imagine the parent-teacher conference that I'd get if she stuck a fork in her teacher's butthole.

I have GOT to stop reading blogs while my kids (students) are working silently. The muffled laughter and tears coming from the teacher are SO distracting!

Sick of being Sick!

(My apologies if I've already used that title somewhere.)

I am 15, almost 16 weeks pregnant. That is 2-3 weeks into my second trimester; almost 4 months pregnant! I should NOT be sick anymore!

When the "morning"sickness started in late Dec. I was about 6 weeks. At that time, it was actually reassuring to be feeling sick. It meant that all the hormones were working and that little bub was growing! Throughout Jan. I was nauseous all day, everyday. By February, I got through it by chanting the number of days left till the end of my first trimester. When 13 weeks rolled around (last week of Trimester 1), I was overjoyed to feel the nausea lessening. I thought it would only be a matter of days till it was gone all together!

Here I am 14 days later, and I am still sick every morning and most evenings. I even have the joy of random puking! I am no longer reassured or willing to "grin and bear it"!

In related news, that might mean it's a boy. I was far more sick with Grant than I was with Brianna. It would figure... we had a boys name all picked out but now we aren't sure. We ARE sure about a girls name- we're just not sharing yet.

Blogs I adore!

This made me cry today. I treasure my children and my career and I feel so lucky everyday. I hurt knowing that others are sad and concerned. I wish I could help in some way!

This made me laugh out loud. Snarking is a great anecdote to sadness!

2nd Trimester

I am finally in my second trimester of pregnancy... officially. This means I am 14 weeks pregnant today. I am feeling somewhat better, the all-day/morning sickness is going away and I am not quite as tired as I used to be. I do still have my moments of both but it doesn't encompass my whole life anymore.

Now I have to wait for new things....
- Thursday I should be able to hear the heartbeat for the first time
- Within a couple weeks I should be able to feel the baby moving
- A couple weeks after that, other people who are crazy enough to touch my belly will be able to feel the movement
- in 6 weeks, we find out the gender and get ultrasound pictures!

I will have to see what my Dr. says at my check up this week but I'm pretty sure I've lost about 8-10 pounds in my first trimester. Given my overweight starting point, this is a good thing. It does not mean anything is wrong with the baby... keep your crazy comments on that one to yourself!

Happy Monday!